Using Automatic Speech Recognition to Evaluate Team Processes in Aviation - First Experiences and Open Questions

This paper reports on the application of automatic speech recognition (ASR) for the analysis of team communication. Shortening the time needed to derive literal transcripts of team communication is seen as an enabler to conduct team process analysis more often in applied research. First, the theoretical background, the connection between teamwork and communication and the state-of-the-art of ASR is described. Second, one use case of collaboration is described in detail to understand the specifics of the observed communication. Applying the nearly untrained ASR to this data yielded a word error rate of 36%. These results and required performance are discussed. The outlook discusses the use of a new generation of ASR models and their expected performance benefits.